Speaker 1: What about because I was telling I was telling Dad
Speaker 1: one of my favorite pranks you. I think I brought
Speaker 1: this up to you on the Continues Call team the
Speaker 1: other day when you when you just did the Footy
Speaker 1: Show and you did the old prank. It was like
Speaker 1: in a It was almost like at a surf club
Speaker 1: public toilet and you run it. You said, I beat you.
Speaker 1: I can watch this, and you like run into a
Speaker 1: toilet and one second later Brett was at the other end.
Speaker 1: He ran out that side. You just do a lot of it,
Speaker 1: because you did a fair bit of that prank stuff
Speaker 1: on the Footy Show.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, well that was probably one of the only
Speaker 2: times we did it. But that bloke, he was absolutely rattled.
Speaker 2: Like I said, oh, do you want to see a
Speaker 2: magic chick. I'll go in this door and come out
Speaker 2: that door. So I was sprinting down there, but I
Speaker 2: had to make sure I made the slap against the
Speaker 2: wall loud enough so Brett could hear it. Ah, So
Speaker 2: I've ran like it's as hard as I could and
Speaker 2: slap the wall and then he's come out the other
Speaker 2: side of the bloke was just like like looking around
Speaker 2: and going oh no. And then we got this other
Speaker 2: bloke in the Crinallum Hall as well as he would
Speaker 2: have been about sixty five or seventy. I've walked up
Speaker 2: to him and asked for directions to the trains. He's gone,
Speaker 2: it's just down that way, mate. I said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: no where thanks, walked off and then he's walked twenty
Speaker 2: meters and then Brett's popped out in front of hey mate.
Speaker 2: You know, he was just as rattled to it, and
Speaker 2: then like I've kind of popped out because otherwise he
Speaker 2: would have been like.
Speaker 1: I'm losing more thought he's in the matrix.
Speaker 2: So no, there weren't too many pranks we played on
Speaker 2: each other, Like I thought about doing it going back
Speaker 2: to the Dragons and playing the prank here and there.
Speaker 2: But a lot of a lot of those boys we
Speaker 2: grew up with as well, so they knew us as well.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, it's like when whenever Brett got a
Speaker 2: buy or something like that, he'd come up and stay
Speaker 2: at my house and we'd go out with the boys.
Speaker 2: So a lot like a lot of the boys knew
Speaker 2: each of us from the different clubs.
Speaker 3: Okay, so what you see a lot of time is
Speaker 3: the older brother generally young looks after the younger brother sometimes.
Speaker 3: You know, it's proven that the younger brother's more lazy, fair,
Speaker 3: and more reactive. The older brother always thinks, are worries
Speaker 3: more about the future. And I see that with Joey
Speaker 3: and I, and I see it with Jack and Cooper.
Speaker 3: Who was born? For who was first? You were born?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Is that trait? Do you think?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: It doesn't.
Speaker 2: No, I reckon he especially on those kangaroo tours, because
Speaker 2: I was an emu for all three of them, and
Speaker 2: he was my roommate for all three of them, so
Speaker 2: he used to like I used to go out and
Speaker 2: come home and be he'd be playing on the Saturday.
Speaker 2: I get over at like three am, and he reckons that.
Speaker 2: One one night I came home and I must have
Speaker 2: tripped over his bag because he used to sleep closest
Speaker 2: to the door. So I've just started kicking the ship
Speaker 2: and poking him up. He's gone fucking go to bed,
Speaker 2: he reckons as fast as he's ever seen anyone. I've
Speaker 2: just gone, yes, sir, put me hands to me side
Speaker 2: like that, and fell forward onto my bed, and he
Speaker 2: reckons before I hit the mattress, I was snoring, so
Speaker 2: he had had to put my legs over and tuck
Speaker 2: me in. But now I was I was probably the
Speaker 2: one who wasn't as sensible. Like I said, he kind
Speaker 2: of let me, let me go out and make an
Speaker 2: edio to myself and then then rain me.
Speaker 1: The positive thing of that, right, because you are two
Speaker 1: different personalities, but you are also identical twins. So if
Speaker 1: somebody messed up on a night out, maybe you know,
Speaker 1: smashed a beer over someone or did something like, you know,
Speaker 1: it probably wouldn't come out in the media because they
Speaker 1: didn't they couldn't define whether it was Josh or Breath.
Speaker 2: Ended up in a defamation case. There is one time
Speaker 2: I did go out and we'd played on the Friday. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we played on the Friday. So I was out at
Speaker 2: the Vinyl rooming Guymere. It was a Saturday night and
Speaker 2: made I was. I had about ten vodka lemonades in
Speaker 2: front of me, and these blokes come up to me
Speaker 2: and they're like, can't you bread? So I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: don't you play the Dragons tomorrow? I know sharks. He
Speaker 2: was playing for the Dragons. I said, yeah, we're playing
Speaker 2: the Sharks. Don't worry about that. I'll score two tries. Tomorrow,
Speaker 2: no dramas, and they're like, oh, can we get a fight.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, played the next day and got a double.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, they have been going This boke was out
Speaker 2: all night, comes out and scores a double. Jeez, he's
Speaker 2: a good player.
Speaker 1: That's the Sammi Verrel story as well. Sammy Verrel's has
Speaker 1: got twinnal twin Oliver. And at the Grand Final they
Speaker 1: played against I think it was the Raiders, Sammy Bell's
Speaker 1: starting hooker, and his brother Oliver is sitting there and
Speaker 1: having a beer in the crowd and they go, aren't
Speaker 1: you Sammy Vels. He goes yeah, yeah, and he aren't
Speaker 1: you playing in like an hour and a half he goes, yeah, Robbo,
Speaker 1: lets me come out and have a couple of beers
Speaker 1: with my family before the game, helps me calm my nerves.
Speaker 1: And then they were oh right, And apparently the boys
Speaker 1: gone back to everyone and go I just saw Sammy
Speaker 1: Vel's in there smashing schooners at the public bar, like
Speaker 1: at the front of the stadium, and then five minutes
Speaker 1: in or six minutes in he scores on fifteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I guess that's one of the advantages of being
Speaker 2: in a twin as well, like, yeah, I don't think
Speaker 2: the journals were too keen to print, and I think.
Speaker 3: Your career is unbelievable, josh a Mountain football. You played,
Speaker 3: but you played some interesting clubs. First of all, so
Speaker 3: you finish at the Roosters. You've got the and they
Speaker 3: got the Sharks, two great clubs. First two clubs you're
Speaker 3: played for are really like massive club not the others
Speaker 3: who art. But what I mean is massive clubs is
Speaker 3: the amount of passion with this, you know, and in
Speaker 3: good times things are unbelievable. In bad times things are awful.
Speaker 3: So you started at Dragons, then you go to the Bulldogs, Like,
Speaker 3: can you give us an idea of that playing for
Speaker 3: those really big passionate fans.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, yeah, you're right. They are similar fan
Speaker 2: bases in the fact that they expect success and when
Speaker 2: they don't get it, they are very, very vocal about it.
Speaker 2: I still remember I'm playing for the Dragons and number
Speaker 2: of times the fans get given it to us when
Speaker 2: we're behind the goal line, and then when you're winning,
Speaker 2: like they're so proud of and the pats on the
Speaker 2: back come. But it's similar to the Dogs as well.
Speaker 2: But Yeah, the Dogs had a lot of a lot
Speaker 2: of tough times for a while there, and then I
Speaker 2: came along. You know, nine, they just they just won
Speaker 2: the wooden spoon and they brought about six or seven
Speaker 2: of it across. There was myself, Mick, Ennis, Ben Hannah,
Speaker 2: and Michael Hodgson was there, David Stag, Greg Eastwood, a
Speaker 2: lot of family blokes. I was probably, and Brett Marley
Speaker 2: was there too, sorry. So there were a lot of
Speaker 2: family blokes there. They were trying to get the family
Speaker 2: club vibe going. And then I was probably the youngest.
Speaker 2: But Kevin Moore had just taken over from Folksy as coach.
Speaker 2: He was the one that got me there. He wanted
Speaker 2: me to play center, and he goes, I'm not I'm
Speaker 2: going to give you fifty games at center. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to drop you. I think you're a center. He
Speaker 2: said that, and that kind of gave me confidence in
Speaker 2: myself as well. But we played this really different style
Speaker 2: of football. It was a very attacking style of football. Yeah,
Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of drop lines, a lot
Speaker 2: of movement, a lot of second phase and off the
Speaker 2: back of it. Off the back of that, like I
Speaker 2: had Ben Roberts as my healf. He probably had a
Speaker 2: career best year that year, and I was on the
Speaker 2: outside of him. I think I scored about twenty two
Speaker 2: or twenty three tries that year, and.
Speaker 3: It was, yeah, we are interesting style.
Speaker 2: That was probably the most enjoyable year of football I
Speaker 2: ever had. And then off the back of that, we
Speaker 2: had a couple of years where we probably didn't succeed
Speaker 2: and underachieved, and then that's when Dez came in, and
Speaker 2: then from that moment on we went from being, you know,
Speaker 2: a professional club to the ultra professional. You know what
Speaker 2: does is like with all these gps, his data and
Speaker 2: that and just his training the training loads went up,
Speaker 2: and off the back of that, we're able to make
Speaker 2: two Grand finals in three years.
Speaker 3: Really quick. Yeah, two Grand finals twenty twelve. Have you
Speaker 3: ever been part of a player that had such an
Speaker 3: unbelievable season just so consistently did freaky things like ben
Speaker 3: Barba that year?
Speaker 2: No, Like yeah, like that was just crazy, the amount
Speaker 2: of tries that we scored out of the back end
Speaker 2: of our half or on play one because of his
Speaker 2: kick returns, and not only that, like his ball playing
Speaker 2: ability that year was great, but he saved so many
Speaker 2: tries that year on our goal line as well, like
Speaker 2: there were I think there was one against we played
Speaker 2: the Warriors, and I don't know how he managed to
Speaker 2: save it. I think it was a big front trying
Speaker 2: to crash over, but he was over the back of
Speaker 2: him and got flipped over and just managed to get
Speaker 2: his hand underneath it. And we won that game off
Speaker 2: the back of his defense. Like he was just phenomenal talent.
Speaker 2: And that year I don't think anyone saw that coming,
Speaker 2: but me and him struck up a partnership that year
Speaker 2: as well. I reckon I scored probably fifteen tries off
Speaker 2: him that year.
Speaker 1: You scored that one was.
Speaker 2: In that year as well.
Speaker 1: He was He started that said in the Cooper put
Speaker 1: a kick in the right corner in the nearly on
Speaker 1: the dead ball line, and then he beat about seven
Speaker 1: blokes and a lot of those blokes were like blokes
Speaker 1: that don't miss, you know, Cameron Smith and then.
Speaker 2: Madam Smith took his head off and he didn't get simmoned.
Speaker 1: And then he put and then he put the chipki oginde.
Speaker 2: We went into Origin camp. But that's a high tackle.
Speaker 2: He's got to go.
Speaker 1: But was he what was he like a training like,
Speaker 1: was he a freak doing freaky things a train or
Speaker 1: even his preseason leading into that year, did you know
Speaker 1: something special was coming?
Speaker 2: Nah? No, like he to start with, his fitness levels
Speaker 2: probably weren't there. But like under Daz, like Dere's got
Speaker 2: every unfit and off the back of that he was
Speaker 2: able to do some amazing things. And like a lot
Speaker 2: of the blokes there, like like Sam Casciano, Greg Eastwood,
Speaker 2: Frankie Richard, like some of those blokes, they were probably
Speaker 2: the fittest they'd ever been. And like the footy they
Speaker 2: played that year was freaky amazing as well. So that
Speaker 2: was that was another enjoyable year. But on the on
Speaker 2: the big day, we just got out coached. They had
Speaker 2: two trick plays. They both came off and there was
Speaker 2: there was a moment as well for myself. Benny made
Speaker 2: a half break. There was about fifteen minutes ago and
Speaker 2: it was similar to the Mackay. He went to the outside,
Speaker 2: I came back on the inside. He's kicked it. I
Speaker 2: didn't get the bounce, so I've kicked it again and
Speaker 2: as it's about to get in front of me, I'm
Speaker 2: about to catch this ball ten meters out and run
Speaker 2: under the post score with about fifteen to gay the ball.
Speaker 2: And in my fifteen years of first grade, the ball
Speaker 2: never bounce for me like that. It bounced up and
Speaker 2: up over my head. I've tried to get the ball,
Speaker 2: I've touched it and then Billy's knocked it dead. So
Speaker 2: I knocked it on and then that was it after that.
Speaker 1: It's funny. I remember when I came, when I went
Speaker 1: into Melbourne that the first year they made the Grand
Speaker 1: Final against the Roosters, and leading into that week, Billy
Speaker 1: Slated did a big talk on trick. He was like,
Speaker 1: well planned trick plays win big games, and he showed
Speaker 1: those two the two tries for that. The first one
Speaker 1: was it was I think the first one was where
Speaker 1: they set up a play because the right half, I
Speaker 1: don't remember who the right half was for you guys
Speaker 1: that day, Josh Reynolds, Josh Reynolds. They'd seen a tendency
Speaker 1: in his game that whenever you'd put a back roller
Speaker 1: on his on his outside shoulder, he would just he'd
Speaker 1: leave the inside play and have only eyes for him
Speaker 1: and he'd slide out. So they come up with that
Speaker 1: play where he can play. They Yeah, they'd pumped to
Speaker 1: the back rower and Slater would come between the half
Speaker 1: and the back roll which they Slatsy scored on. And
Speaker 1: then there was a tricky kick play that they think
Speaker 1: Matt Duffy maybe might have been.
Speaker 2: I think it was Julian O'Neill, Julian Justin and it was.
Speaker 1: So it was so interesting when he broke it down,
Speaker 1: it was like, mate, you know that you only get
Speaker 1: a certain amount of, you know, opportunities in big games
Speaker 1: to play, so you need to pre plan.
Speaker 3: I love that from Billy because people get there and
Speaker 3: you go, oh, you don't need you don't need tricks
Speaker 3: to win Grand finals? Yeah, yeah, you do sometimes. Twenty fourteen,
Speaker 3: you know it was another Grand Final, twenty four Doeen
Speaker 3: against South Yeah, twenty fourteen. So one of the things
Speaker 3: I love it when I used to play with some
Speaker 3: play players to get them how they get themselves up
Speaker 3: emotionally and it lifts everybody else. James Graham in that game,
Speaker 3: like where he grabs Billy and does the Vlad the
Speaker 3: Impaler like just takes it bites. What was he like
Speaker 3: in the sheds Fully game? How high did he used
Speaker 3: to get?
Speaker 2: He'd have the smelling Sultan. Then just eyes would be
Speaker 2: rolling in the back of his head and he'd say, boys,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go out there and try and commit murder.
Speaker 2: Who's coming with me? I'm gonna I'm gonna leave nothing out.
Speaker 2: And you know there's players like I imagine Adrian Morley
Speaker 2: was just as crazy. It must just be an Englishman.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like he led by his actions, Jim, and
Speaker 2: you know, whenever there was always a chase back, he'd
Speaker 2: always been the frame as well. Like it's he just
Speaker 2: never gave up and he was willing to put his
Speaker 2: head in places where most people were.
Speaker 1: Man had he already won a Grand Final in the Super.
Speaker 2: He'd won one early on, I think, and then he
Speaker 2: lost about six or seven in a row and he
Speaker 2: finished his career winning one.
Speaker 1: So because even that twenty fourteen Grand Final, you talk
Speaker 1: about the start where he breaks Sam Bird's cheek.
Speaker 3: Punts didn't hit him enough, he said, he said that
Speaker 3: initially the plan was going to be kick away from Sam.
Speaker 3: Apparently he said to no, no, I want to get
Speaker 3: some action on.
Speaker 2: And made he got Dave Tyrrel that day as well,
Speaker 2: like he was on one. But there was a difference
Speaker 2: between twelve and fourteen as well, like in terms of
Speaker 2: our season, like we were minor premiers and twelve. In
Speaker 2: fourteen thirteen we underachieved and Des was absolutely filthy at us.
Speaker 2: So fourteen we had a really tough preseason, but we
Speaker 2: had a fair few injuries throughout the year and it
Speaker 2: was like we were sitting like six seventh for most
Speaker 2: part of the year and Des he was like, don't
Speaker 2: worry about where we're sitting on the ladder, just make
Speaker 2: the eight. He goes, We'll be fine, We'll get to
Speaker 2: the Grand Final, no worries, because he just believed in
Speaker 2: outside that much. And then we finished seventh. The first
Speaker 2: week we went down to Melbourne and played Melbourne down
Speaker 2: there and flogged them, gave it to and then the
Speaker 2: next week we played mainly we beat them in Golden Point.
Speaker 2: I think it was Trent Hodginson kicked a field goal.
Speaker 2: Then we played Penrith in the prelim final. We beat
Speaker 2: them by only I think four points maybe, but we
Speaker 2: lost Mick Andnis in that game and that was that
Speaker 2: was huge for us, losing Mick because he was our
Speaker 2: captain and you know how great a talking Mick is,
Speaker 2: the way he can get a side up just just
Speaker 2: by talking, like we lost a bit of that during
Speaker 2: the week and him, you know, reving the boys up
Speaker 2: in the sheds before the game, and we also had
Speaker 2: a couple of blokes busted. We were competitive for sixty minutes,
Speaker 2: but we'd played those four games by that stage that
Speaker 2: had just taken it out of us, and they just
Speaker 2: ran away with it and ended up flogging us in
Speaker 2: the end.
Speaker 3: Funny when you watch the game in hindsight, watching the
Speaker 3: game live, you go and you look back now in
Speaker 3: time and you go look at the schooline youes house
Speaker 3: pretty comfortable win. But when you watch the game again,
Speaker 3: I mean with twelve minutes ago, the game is genuinely
Speaker 3: in the balance.
Speaker 2: Can go with the way Yeah yeah, yeah, we just
Speaker 2: just ran out of steam. But like I said, they
Speaker 2: played well throughout that year as well, and that I
Speaker 2: think the twelve one hurt me more than the fourteen
Speaker 2: because I walked off the field in twelve things and
Speaker 2: that I couldn't have played any better than what I
Speaker 2: did and we lost. A better team beat us. But
Speaker 2: in fourteen I didn't have that good a game and
Speaker 2: just left a bit hollow.
Speaker 1: Under that one, and it was probably more of an
Speaker 1: underdog mentality because you finished seventh whereas that twelve, like
Speaker 1: you guys are the standard all year, finished in first
Speaker 1: as my premiers. So there's a little bit of almost
Speaker 1: like an expectation like this is our competition?
Speaker 2: Have you?
Speaker 1: I was just gonna ask because in fourteen, you know
Speaker 1: the Greg Engliss Goanna is in that. But I love
Speaker 1: the battle that you and Greg English probably had not
Speaker 1: only in state of origin, but throughout your whole career.
Speaker 1: What was that like being one of like because you
Speaker 1: talk about you talk about Latroll Mitchell now is a
Speaker 1: dominant one on one center, but the original like one
Speaker 1: on one give.
Speaker 2: The ball earlier in my generation that was Gi Mat
Speaker 2: Before that, Wait, it was tough. I'm looking to lie
Speaker 2: like I had a job to do, but I took
Speaker 2: that responsibility with great pride as well. And I've said it.
Speaker 2: I said it to Joey actually, like I remember going
Speaker 2: on a kangaroo tour and just warming up with him
Speaker 2: and doing the pummeling and he was strolling me around
Speaker 2: like a rag doll. I'm like, all right, I need
Speaker 2: to get in the gym. I need to get so
Speaker 2: much stronger to take this beast on and like I
Speaker 2: would do some weird stuff in the gym, like we'd
Speaker 2: be throwing weights around and like, well what are you
Speaker 2: lifting that? He before I said, well this is what
Speaker 2: he weighs this. If I can throw this around, it
Speaker 2: gives me confidence and throw him around as well. And
Speaker 2: but like I knew that I had to shut his
Speaker 2: time down wherever I could say. It wasn't about kind
Speaker 2: of watching him. It was about watching you know, Billy
Speaker 2: and and JT and and Cam and them trying to
Speaker 2: tip him up to get him the ball and on
Speaker 2: that pass just getting as close as I could to
Speaker 2: him to try and get that find before it got
Speaker 2: to me. Chest out got me with it a fair
Speaker 2: few times. But if I could do a job on
Speaker 2: him and try and eliminate the damage on him, it
Speaker 2: would go a long way to us winning as well.
Speaker 2: So that was a contest I really enjoyed. And yeah,
Speaker 2: like he he'll go down, he'll probably be in a
Speaker 2: mortal one day some things. Origin, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: He was a new south Wachman too, so that made it.
Speaker 1: I mean, the battle to knew him and Origin was
Speaker 1: always good. I felt like it was always quite like
Speaker 1: you were one of the centers that could sort of
Speaker 1: get him off his game a little bit. But I'm
Speaker 1: trying to remember the center, Paul. It might have been
Speaker 1: one of the g I's first He's playing on the
Speaker 1: left side of his first origins and they give him
Speaker 1: early ball. It might have been Kingy Matt King and.
Speaker 2: Up over.
Speaker 1: Fender Turner, went back fender gazz Fender Turner again and
Speaker 1: then hurdled him. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: Across his body too. Yeah. The first time I played
Speaker 2: him was in New South wal I was nineties. We
Speaker 2: played him in the nineties. He was fullback that day
Speaker 2: and I think he just played. It was two thousand
Speaker 2: and five, so he just debuted maybe the week or
Speaker 2: two before, and we were like, oh, let's smash him.
Speaker 2: Let's give it to him, mate. No one got there.
Speaker 2: He scored a double beat it's bite about fifty and
Speaker 2: he was like, mate, this floke is a talent.
Speaker 3: Who's who's the best you've played with? Who's the best
Speaker 3: played against that?
Speaker 2: Well, probably the best I've played against would probably be
Speaker 2: g in terms of centners, but played with I mean,
Speaker 2: I was lucky to play, as I said, went on
Speaker 2: three kangaroo tours, so got to play with a lot
Speaker 2: of those Queensland's Lucky Thurston cam Smith, you know, those
Speaker 2: types of players. But I used to love playing alongside
Speaker 2: Bertie greg Bird. Yeah, like you just knew what you
Speaker 2: were going to get with Bertie. He was going to
Speaker 2: go out there and try and fly into people, break
Speaker 2: some ribs. But he was also really good with the
Speaker 2: footing in Hend as well, and a lot of a
Speaker 2: lot of his best foot You played in the Origin
Speaker 2: was it five eight? It was.
Speaker 3: Healthy arrogance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look Gaale probably he gets bagged a lot,
Speaker 2: but he was a tough, tough bastard. Like to play
Speaker 2: eighty minutes in Origin in the front row like that
Speaker 2: took a lot of a lot of willpower there. So yeah,
Speaker 2: those types of players. And look, I loved playing when
Speaker 2: I first got to the Dogs as well, with blokes
Speaker 2: like Naughty Muley and Bobcat, General Patton, all those types
Speaker 2: of blokes. Like, yeah, I like it. It's hard to
Speaker 2: like because, like I said, I played started in two
Speaker 2: thousand and seven, finished in twenty one. So I've played
Speaker 2: against kind of three you've.
Speaker 1: Played, You've played against everyone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that that kind of helps me at the moment.
Speaker 2: Still with the sideline stuff because when people see your face,
Speaker 2: they recognize you because they probably played against me. So
Speaker 2: it's a lot easier to go up to them and.
Speaker 1: Just gone back to the Dragons for half a second
Speaker 1: because you're only there for two years and your brother
Speaker 1: obviously stayed there when you left went to the Bulldogs.
Speaker 1: But was the circumstances and you leaving there? Was it
Speaker 1: because you played a fair you played I think forty
Speaker 1: games in two years there were you did you have
Speaker 1: to leave? Because was it Matt Cooper and Mark Gasnier
Speaker 1: as a center and that was it? Just was one
Speaker 1: of them injured when you went in or so no.
Speaker 2: I dibuted as a fullback. So I played my first
Speaker 2: year at fullback, played the whole year there. Brett was
Speaker 2: supposed to be the fullback but he got injured and
Speaker 2: then sat out the whole year. So it was a
Speaker 2: good year for me because I was on match payments
Speaker 2: at that stage. I think I was on about full
Speaker 2: greender match and I played nearly every match, so I
Speaker 2: had these mid season I had this big big lumps
Speaker 2: on payment coming. Moms like, all right, you can have
Speaker 2: fun for a year, but after that you're get into
Speaker 2: the count. So I can't imagine how much fun I
Speaker 2: had there but twenty one with all this cash. But
Speaker 2: then yes, but then the second year, I kind of
Speaker 2: started at fullback, then went to the wing, then played
Speaker 2: center's Coops got injured for a while and I started
Speaker 2: playing left center. And he came back and Paul McGregor,
Speaker 2: who was the strengthened conditioning coach, he was kind of
Speaker 2: a mentor to me. I used to love Mary growing
Speaker 2: up playing as well, so I was really, yeah, I
Speaker 2: was stoked when he kind of started mentoring me, and
Speaker 2: he went into bat for me and said, Coops should
Speaker 2: play reserve grade. Josh's playing well enough, he should stay there.
Speaker 2: And then for whatever reason didn't happen, and I think
Speaker 2: I kind of played a bit of right center, left
Speaker 2: center wing. So the opportunity came I was off contract
Speaker 2: and the opportunity to come up to look elsewhere. And
Speaker 2: that's when I went to the Dogs and Kevin Moore
Speaker 2: said I want you as a center and that you know,
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, like this is what I want
Speaker 2: I want to be, you know, I left center. I
Speaker 2: want to forge my career there. And at that stage
Speaker 2: I had Coops and Gaz there, who were both playing
Speaker 2: for the Blues. About a week after I signed, Gaz
Speaker 2: went to France maybe a little maybe two weeks and
Speaker 2: then they tried to get me back and I said, well,
Speaker 2: you didn't want me two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Do you talk about, like people speak, going into a
Speaker 1: good system or having a really good coach, But I
Speaker 1: think it's equally as important to have like an experienced,
Speaker 1: elite older player in your position at the club that
Speaker 1: you first come into when you're young first grader.
Speaker 2: Did you learn Yeah, I learned a lot from you know,
Speaker 2: probably be both more like Gas more so with the
Speaker 2: attacking side, but keeps defensively as well, Like you pick
Speaker 2: their brains and then you kind of develop your own
Speaker 2: thoughts on how you should defend as well. And I
Speaker 2: think the one thing that I always prided myself on
Speaker 2: as a as a center was my communication. I think
Speaker 2: you know, I was the loudest person on the field
Speaker 2: on that left edge. I kind of took it as
Speaker 2: I was the leader, and I would tell my half
Speaker 2: what he was doing and tell my winger what he
Speaker 2: was doing, so we're all on the same page, and
Speaker 2: you know, there would be times where you know, different
Speaker 2: parts of the field, and you've got to get on
Speaker 2: side quick, got to look up and in half a
Speaker 2: second you've got to make a judgment. But you've got
Speaker 2: to do it clear, and you've got to be loud.
Speaker 2: And when you get fatigue, the first thing that goes
Speaker 2: is communication and that's why you see, you know, people
Speaker 2: coming out and not doing the same thing. So I
Speaker 2: always prided myself that no matter how tight I was,
Speaker 2: I was always the loudest voice on that side. And
Speaker 2: sometimes it worked because the opposition would hear you they
Speaker 2: go the other way. So you can always fox it
Speaker 2: out of it as well.
Speaker 1: Especially in the modern game, the center is the they're
Speaker 1: the most important.
Speaker 2: Don't tell James Graham that.
Speaker 1: The center is in terms of edge defense. So I
Speaker 1: won't take to the ruck defense. But the center is
Speaker 1: the hardest place to defend on the field because when
Speaker 1: people become attacking shapes, that's where all the decision basically
Speaker 1: is on the centers if they go deep, whether the
Speaker 1: gen the fullback at the back. But you also if
Speaker 1: you jam too early and they catch you out with
Speaker 1: a pass.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's that's the thing as well. As a center.
Speaker 2: You don't want to give the opposition the queue, like
Speaker 2: you want them to come up with the decision rather
Speaker 2: than you springing out of the line and then playing
Speaker 2: early like you would try and have a battle with
Speaker 2: the half and the fullback and just cry on the
Speaker 2: toy with them, like turn you a little turn your
Speaker 2: body a little bit in. But then as soon as
Speaker 2: the pass when you straighten up again, or you'd come
Speaker 2: up quick, but then kind of slide back in and
Speaker 2: you just try and toy with them a little bit,
Speaker 2: but also not give them the queue. At the same time,
Speaker 2: they'd have to come up with a good play to
Speaker 2: beat you, and then if they did that, you gave
Speaker 2: fair play to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this now going to you only had two seasons
Speaker 1: with the Sharks. Obviously you spent majority of your creer.
Speaker 2: One in two games. It was it one and two
Speaker 2: games and two games. Yeah, what what was your.
Speaker 1: Experience like that? What was first of all why the
Speaker 1: move took.
Speaker 2: Now, well, I had well I was at the Dogs
Speaker 2: and at that stage they had a couple salary cap issues.
Speaker 2: They weren't going too well. But they actually said to me,
Speaker 2: we can't even offer you a contract out of respect.
Speaker 2: You've been here for ten years. We can't offer anything
Speaker 2: to you at all, so I think you need to
Speaker 2: look elsewhere. And that was pretty early on, so I
Speaker 2: respect them for that. And then the decision was, well
Speaker 2: do I go over to England? At that stage, how
Speaker 2: old are you? Then? I was was that eighteen I
Speaker 2: would have been thirty two and I had just had
Speaker 2: a young daughter as well. So Steve price was a
Speaker 2: coach at Warrington and Pricey was my under twenties coach,
Speaker 2: and you know he coach bred at the Dragons as well,
Speaker 2: and you know, we were still in contact and he
Speaker 2: wanted me to go over there, but he wanted me
Speaker 2: to play fullback and I was like, mate, I'm thirty two.
Speaker 2: You play two or three games a week on soft grounds.
Speaker 2: I just don't know if I'd be able to do that.
Speaker 2: And then there was Gold Coast Titans, and then the
Speaker 2: Sharks came in late and I live five minutes from
Speaker 2: the ground, so I was like, there's no point in
Speaker 2: moving my family to Gold Coast or to England for
Speaker 2: the same amount of money. I'm better off just staying here.
Speaker 2: But what it did was like you go, when you're
Speaker 2: so familiar with a club for ten years, you go
Speaker 2: somewhere else. You've got to almost reinvent yourself, and you've
Speaker 2: got to train harder and give the boys, show them
Speaker 2: that they and they've got to trust you and be
Speaker 2: confident in you. So it kind of gives you a
Speaker 2: bit of a new lease on life. And I really
Speaker 2: enjoyed that season at from that perspective as well, trying
Speaker 2: to make friends and fit into their culture as well.
Speaker 2: And then you know, I had a great year there.
Speaker 2: That was gals last year as well, so we enjoyed
Speaker 2: that ride the Gale Farewell Tour. And the next year
Speaker 2: I played two games for the Sharkis, but they had
Speaker 2: a couple of salary cap issues as well, where if
Speaker 2: someone didn't leave by a certain point in the season
Speaker 2: that they wouldn't have been playing for points. Ah, you're right,
Speaker 2: it was. It was. It was just a really strange one.
Speaker 2: And I asked for a release to go and play
Speaker 2: alongside Brett and they said no and knocked me back
Speaker 2: straight away. But what I didn't realize is because they
Speaker 2: had these salary cap issues in the offseason, start of
Speaker 2: the preseason, they had offered me up to other clubs,
Speaker 2: so and they'd written it in an email, so Wow.
Speaker 2: My manager went back to him and said, well, and
Speaker 2: then it got to a point where someone had to go,
Speaker 2: and I went. I turned up to Roosters and the
Speaker 2: first day of training was covid. Oh well, I met
Speaker 2: all the boys and went Rodyo, Lah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was there still I know it was a few
Speaker 1: years after before you went there, but was there still
Speaker 1: a little bit of a like a stigma around the
Speaker 1: club with the whole pep tides.
Speaker 2: When they had won the comp in sixteen? So I
Speaker 2: think any of that kind of stuff had well and
Speaker 2: truly gone by that stage. And yeah, like I said,
Speaker 2: it was girls last year, so we enjoyed that and
Speaker 2: we had a good trip away at Bali at the
Speaker 2: end of the year after that too.
Speaker 3: Was the Rooster's culture compared to everyone else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I turned up at the Roosters, and like
Speaker 2: I was a senior player at the Dog's senior player
Speaker 2: at the at the Sharkis. But I'll get there and
Speaker 2: they've got Jared, They've got Mitch Orbison, Brett boy called
Speaker 2: a Jake friend, Like, yeah.
Speaker 3: And you enjoy them?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I loved it, you know, And we were probably
Speaker 2: pretty unlucky for those two years that I was there,
Speaker 2: they had a horror run with injuries and like I
Speaker 2: remember being twenty one, we were up in the in
Speaker 2: the COVID bubble. I think we had about three players
Speaker 2: left by the end of the year that could could
Speaker 2: actually play. Like that's how bad the injury Toitle was.
Speaker 2: They lost obviously lost Boydy Jake Friend both to concussions.
Speaker 2: Brett did his knee in twenty one, so we lost
Speaker 2: him as well. So but in terms of that that
Speaker 2: club and I'd come into twenty when they'd come off
Speaker 2: back to back premiership wins and the standard of training
Speaker 2: like was unbelievable. Real, Yeah, Like the training a couple
Speaker 2: of days before the game was almost like a game
Speaker 2: in itself. So if you had to do your fitness tests,
Speaker 2: you do it on that day because if you couldn't
Speaker 2: get through that game simulation, you weren't going to play.
Speaker 2: Like there were boths just flying into each other just
Speaker 2: and like I was like, Okay, I can see why
Speaker 2: they're why they've been like this.
Speaker 1: I heard that like the edge v edge when it
Speaker 1: was left edge on right edge back then, particularly when
Speaker 1: they win a calm, was like ridiculously competitive. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: just blokes getting like you know, you wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 2: Was Latrell verse Joey?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: True, So that's what they would have been going up against.
Speaker 2: And I did a fair bit against Joey too, and
Speaker 2: I was like, this bloke is, so.
Speaker 1: Did you come in to take Latrell's left center spot.
Speaker 2: Well, he went to Souse and then at that time
Speaker 2: when you left the Sharks, Bryce and Goodwin left SOUS
Speaker 2: and went to the Sharks.
Speaker 1: It was a love triangle.
Speaker 2: Yes, wow, But the thing is that was that was
Speaker 2: the weird thing as well. So back to the Sharks.
Speaker 2: So I'd got a release and they wanted five games,
Speaker 2: but I ended up playing to the first two games
Speaker 2: and then the next that that Monday was COVID. In
Speaker 2: that time, that was when Brons and Cherry got done
Speaker 2: for yeah by a SATA. So if I had stayed
Speaker 2: for the five games, I would have They wouldn't have
Speaker 2: let me go. I would have stayed. So yeah, that
Speaker 2: was one of those revolving door moments I guess.
Speaker 1: To go to, like to link back up with your brother.
Speaker 2: Who that was? That was the only reason I went,
Speaker 2: is that the only reason. That was the only reason
Speaker 2: I went to. You know, we spoke about it start
Speaker 2: their careers. Would it be to start together and finish together?
Speaker 2: And like it was, I've said this before. It was
Speaker 2: easier for me to live to play for Cornella. I
Speaker 2: lived five minutes down the road. Like it was a
Speaker 2: great listyle. I enjoyed the club. I enjoyed the boys,
Speaker 2: but this was purely because I wanted to play alongside
Speaker 2: my brother and and when people kind of understood that,
Speaker 2: they respected it. Like I thought, I thought I'd get
Speaker 2: a lot a lot of blowback from the boys, to
Speaker 2: the Carnello boys. They a lot of them understood it.
Speaker 2: But the one bloke who I thought I'd probably get
Speaker 2: a bit of grief for it was from Andrew fafieda mate.
Speaker 2: He said, mate, if I was in the same position
Speaker 2: as you, because his brother was playing over in England,
Speaker 2: he goes, I would have done the same thing and
Speaker 2: that and after that I was like, Okay, that's that's good, Josh.
Speaker 3: When you commentate in football at GB oftentimes you'll find
Speaker 3: yourself You'll say things or players for when you're move
Speaker 3: into the video, you hear yourself talking and you go, okay,
Speaker 3: that's where I got it from. You hear the coach
Speaker 3: in your voice, I want to have the most influence.
Speaker 3: Who's that for you?
Speaker 2: Probably Desi? Yeah, I just yeah. I loved Desi as
Speaker 2: a coach. I loved his work ethic. I loved his
Speaker 2: his loyalty to his players, how protective he was. You know,
Speaker 2: there were certain journalists that weren't allowed in the film
Speaker 2: or at stage is because they'd written a bad story
Speaker 2: about one of the boys. Or but yeah, the way
Speaker 2: he worked, but the way his game plans and were
Speaker 2: so detailed, and you would I would go out and
Speaker 2: it was almost like I knew the opposition better than
Speaker 2: they knew themselves. And that level of confidence that brought
Speaker 2: to my game made me a better player. And you know,
Speaker 2: Desi's a unique character. The general public don't get to
Speaker 2: see what Desi is actually like because when the cameras
Speaker 2: aren't in front of him, he's completely differ and he's
Speaker 2: quite quite funny. Lives around the corner that he was.
Speaker 2: He's bought in Klamer, He's bought in Clamber.
Speaker 3: He yeah a lot of people. He is very mysterious man.
Speaker 3: People don't know he's a neist. We get up this
Speaker 3: morning and he'd be flailing about.
Speaker 2: In the addition, well, the fun the funny stories was
Speaker 2: when because he got the house there with a picket fence,
Speaker 2: and then the beach. Whenever there was big, big surf mate,
Speaker 2: he would be on a knife's edge at training, he'd
Speaker 2: be pacing and we're like, what's the matter mate? He
Speaker 2: goes on, might lose my house today. We're like, well
Speaker 2: you shouldt to build it on a fucking beach. Build
Speaker 2: a brick wall, break wall.
Speaker 3: Someone built a breakball know where it appeared from. But
Speaker 3: when he bought the before he bought the house, he
Speaker 3: got all the he went good, all this the reports
Speaker 3: from the council to see as far as flooding and
Speaker 3: tides over the course of one hundred years, and he
Speaker 3: measured it out everything and by that makes sense.
Speaker 1: What about the going back to the roosters for re sect,
Speaker 1: because I remember when you spoke about Brett doing his knee,
Speaker 1: because that was I don't know if it was he'd
Speaker 1: already announced it was going to be his last year.
Speaker 2: No, we both didn't say it like that. He did
Speaker 2: his knee and then about a week later announced it.
Speaker 1: But had you so because I remember when he was
Speaker 1: spoken about it flashed to you guys in there. You
Speaker 1: were sitting next to him, and he's pretty like visibly upset.
Speaker 1: Did you boys both sort of know, look, this is
Speaker 1: probably going to be our last late last year in
Speaker 1: the NRL.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'd spoken about it. We both kind of agreed
Speaker 2: that it was going to be our last year.
Speaker 1: And then when he what do you what do you
Speaker 1: feel in the in the locker rooms after when you just.
Speaker 2: Because he was playing really good football as well, like
Speaker 2: he was on fire that year. I think he'd already
Speaker 2: scored about seven or eight tries and yeah, he was
Speaker 2: just in a really good, good place and playing some
Speaker 2: good football. And then just a tackle that went wrong
Speaker 2: and you could see that his knee was like I
Speaker 2: ran straight away and like he's pretty tough, Like he's
Speaker 2: pretty tough Breton, like when I saw him, and I'm like, nah,
Speaker 2: this isn't good. And then it's funny. They came over
Speaker 2: to him, they said, oh, do you want the medicab?
Speaker 2: He goes, if this is the last thing I ever do,
Speaker 2: I'm not fucking getting the manicab off the field. I'll
Speaker 2: fucking I'll live around. And I scored a try later
Speaker 2: in that game, and you can see him as I'm
Speaker 2: going in to score it. They have the camera from
Speaker 2: the side. You can see him getting carried off looking
Speaker 2: at me scoring the dry ended up scoring a hat
Speaker 2: trick that night, and you know, whilst I was happy,
Speaker 2: I was absolutely shattered. And we drove to the game
Speaker 2: that night, so that car ride home you can imagine,
Speaker 2: wasn't the nicest and I'm cramping up and I'm just like,
Speaker 2: I'm in a fever of painty. But I'm not fucking
Speaker 2: saying a word wins And I don't know what he's
Speaker 2: feeling because I've never done an ACL before, but to
Speaker 2: end your career, but I think the the relief I
Speaker 2: guess that his career was over and that he achieved
Speaker 2: everything that he wanted to do in the game, like
Speaker 2: he walked away happy.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I remember that. I don't know if it was
Speaker 1: the same year or whether it was the year before,
Speaker 1: but it was. It's one of the best games that
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. I was eighteenth man for Melbourne. The
Speaker 1: field field goal and it was that was twenty twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: It wasn't Magic ground.
Speaker 1: It wasn't because there was no crowd there. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was no crowd. You couldn't have a crowd and it
Speaker 1: was COVID tragic ground. It was. It was one of
Speaker 1: the best. It was actually one of the best games
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my life. It was Ryan Pappin.
Speaker 1: I think you guys kicked a kicked a penalty. Cole
Speaker 1: flannagain kicked a penalty goal put you ahead. And then
Speaker 1: I think Cameron Smith got a penalty from in front
Speaker 1: and kicked. Oh no, Ryan Pappenhausen.
Speaker 2: No, I think Friendy gave away a penalty maybe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he kicked it. But then Ryan papenhaus And
Speaker 1: kicked a field goal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, broke your heart. That was yeah, and the storm
Speaker 2: games between when I was at the Roosters because obviously
Speaker 2: Grand Final rematches they were they were awesome games to
Speaker 2: be a part of the intensity there. But yeah, that
Speaker 2: that one was a great game. And yeah, pulled it
Speaker 2: in there with that one. But I think I got
Speaker 2: a double that night as well, So it was a
Speaker 2: hard one.
Speaker 1: I remember you scored and soon broke you back.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean if I had a neck, you would
Speaker 2: have taken it off.
Speaker 1: Yeh, lucky you're all you go straight from head to shoulder.
Speaker 2: I think I scored a lot of tries because they
Speaker 2: tried to pull pull the shoulder and got nothing.
Speaker 1: James, mate, A look, we've taken our too much time.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a far drive for you to come over. Mate,
Speaker 1: you are it is a long drive, but appreciate you.
Speaker 2: It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1: What what I you know? We had a we had
Speaker 1: a bottle of wine that we actually bought you as
Speaker 1: a gift, but Dad drank it.
Speaker 2: Else. Actually, just what are your thoughts on this? So
Speaker 2: I've got my name on the drink bottle, but I've
Speaker 2: got my phone number on the back. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to turn it around. So you think it's a good
Speaker 2: idea about you, but.
Speaker 3: I think it's really bad.
Speaker 2: This is the reason I did it right. So I
Speaker 2: had another one of these. I was at a golf
Speaker 2: day and I was keenan out of wards and then
Speaker 2: I went righty oh, I got to go and went
Speaker 2: straight out after that and left it there. I didn't
Speaker 2: realize until I was almost home, and I called one
Speaker 2: of the boys who was there and said, no, I've left.
Speaker 2: But if I had had it on the table with
Speaker 2: my phone number on it, someone would have went, oh,
Speaker 2: he's left it here. I'll give him a quick call
Speaker 2: I could have.
Speaker 3: Got, Josh, can I just suggest this? It's a fucking
Speaker 3: water bottle.
Speaker 2: It's a good one, and I hate no. But do
Speaker 2: you know how you like you grow up and you're like,
Speaker 2: I don't want to be like my dad. Like my
Speaker 2: dad would write in permanent texture on like everything, everything,
Speaker 2: and you used to hate it. And I'm doing the
Speaker 2: exact same thing, even with my water bottle.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, okay, don't worry dad. Dad says, it's
Speaker 1: the only thing that if you want to get under
Speaker 1: Dad's skin, because he is slowing them morph into his
Speaker 1: father Gary, Like just with little things like oh, mate,
Speaker 1: you know you want directions to the A bridge. We'll
Speaker 1: go out of here and go left and you'll explain
Speaker 1: the whole direction. Then I go, that's right down. I
Speaker 1: got Google Maps. I don't need to explain it. But
Speaker 1: it's the one thing that if you say to Dad,
Speaker 1: oh Jesus, slowly turning into Gary, it just gets right
Speaker 1: on you.
Speaker 3: Trish, that's my father there. Of course. Yes, the one
Speaker 3: was like doctor Spock picture of the picture of the
Speaker 3: air the old Man when he was player back in
Speaker 3: the day. But yeah, she gets something and that's her
Speaker 3: go to and it's funny because I can't say, well,
Speaker 3: you're